FORT LAUDERDALE - A Labor Day beach-goer in Fort Lauderdale required stitches to his arm after he suffered what he told rescuers was a shark bite Monday morning.

The 58-year old part-time resident was in the water around 9:45 a.m. Monday at the beach off 14th Court, just north of Hugh Taylor Birch State Park, when he was bitten. Lois Bowman, division chief of the city Fire Department, said she could not confirm that it was a shark attack.

The beach remained open with no warning flags after a Broward Sheriff's Office helicopter flew the beach and found no sharks in the area.

"He believed he was bitten by a spinner shark feeding on bait fish," Bowman said.

The bite, to the man's left foreman, was about 3 inches long and a half-inch deep. Emergency workers took the man, who was not identified, to Broward General Medical Center.

Guido Garlaschi, of Plantation, was in the water nearby when he heard the man scream. He said the water was flat and that he saw no large fish in the area.

"There are more car accidents in one morning than shark attacks in a year in Fort Lauderdale," he said.

September is when large numbers of mullet migrate south along the Florida coast. Larger fish often follow them to feed off of them.